42nd Street Forever Blu-ray Review from Synapse Films!
Maybe there’s no real need for me to introduce the title of this one from Synapse because their series have been running for a while (around 5 to this date and a triple XXX special). 42nd Street Forever has such a volume of obscure trailers rubbing shoulders with more well known nasties should be impossible outside of Something Weird Video, but it happens with every volume. Even better is that for this blu-ray edition, there’s around 90minutes more chucked in, mainly from Volume 2 but a handful of newbies have found their way onto the release.
Watching the whole mass of styles makes you realize how much the daring and the fun has left the films of now, whether it be horror or whatever. So many modern films are also guilty of trying too hard. These films are effortless; most were to make cash and act as calling cards definitely, but for some reason the buzz simply exists and those you haven’t seen make you scramble desperately for a pen and paper until you have a list longer than you expected (and a bank account soon to be emptied).
The trailers in 42nd Street Forever are divided into sections: blaxploitation, cheeky sex flicks, mondo, science fiction (loosely), horrors, etc. The time periods are concentrated around the sixties and seventies mainly which is great since there’s so many to choose from. One thing you find is you do not get bored and you don’t want to flick to the next trailer even if you’ve seen most of the films because if you do, it somehow breaks the atmosphere.
The back sleeve states there’s over 80+ trailers and they take over 3 hours of your life. There’s actually 89 trailers and that is simply value for money in itself, but then there’s also commentaries which are like a whole new viewing since Fango Mag’s Michael Gingold, AVMANIACS.COM’s Edwin Samuelson, and Temple Of Schlock’s Chris Poggiali chat like three geeks on speed, non stop, it seems over the running time.
So what’s in the collection? Something for everyone provided you enjoy a bit of low budget fun. (Obviously for space saving I’ll only mention a few which doesn’t mean they are the only highlights, since every trailer is just awesome in its own world.) Black action films are covered, for instance there’s Black Samson, Boss Nigger and Savage. There’s Honky which shows a more mellow approach. Sugar Hill is thrown in with ping-pong eyed zombies for horror fans. Revenge flicks? Check Ms. 45, or maybe Rolling Thunder if Vietnam vets float your boat. Savage Sisters and (Thriller) They Call Her One Eye though I personally don’t like the films themselves I enjoyed the trailers (me thinks me and my Horror Soulmate may try them again one day).
How about some nudie movies? Then feast your eyes on around seventeen trailers including The Pom Pom Girls, College Girls, The Minx, and the obscure as hell I, A Woman from the sixties, amongst many more. Titular subjects like sex comedies, straight porn, spankings and serious dramas (with nudity) are touched upon (pardon the pun). Have you ever heard of the caveman sexploitation movie When Women Had Tails? We hadn’t until we watched this. Believe me, it looks cool as hell.
Science Fiction is sort of a twisted moment in the mass of madness because here we have Flesh Gordo and Star Crash (the effects are so dated but so lovingly created in these films) rubbing up against Dark Star and The Raiders Of Atlantis. The latter is quite simply jaw dropping.
How would you like a large helping of horror? Dr. Butcher MD” aka Zombi Holocaust and Deadly Spawn? I know you’ve possibly seen them, same with Deadly Blessing and “Rabid. Aha, what about “The Evil” which looks like one hell of a haunted house movie? Mark Of The Witch? Night Of Bloody Horror? We admit to never even heard of those three. 3D films have a small section, and there’s even a few James Bond rip offs such as Spy In Your Eye, Kiss The Girls and Make Them Die, plus room for a funny sixties spoof called The Last of the Secret Agents featuring Nancy Sinatra.
Shocking Asia, Maid In Sweden and Salo or 120 Days Of Sodom make welcome entries on the disc along with some oh hums like Skatetown USA (Patrick Swayze’s debut) and The Green Slime, then there’s the plain weird like Fairytales, The Crippled Masters” (I can only describe this one as The Shaw Brothers vs. Alejandro Jodorowsky) and Chappaqua (guest starring William S Burroughs). It’s just hard to describe the experience if you haven’t seen any of the 42nd Streets. Maybe it’s the sound quality or the grainy look that gives you a warm feeling, a laugh and a knowing smile on your lips.
There have been other trailer compilations over the years like Grindhouse Trailer Classics, a Something Weird Video one called Extra Weird, and I suppose you can count Terror In The Aisles, though they were movie clips. The general aim was the same, to give viewers a taste of what is out there. I hope there’s more blu-rays of this series coming our way from Synapse, especially if the same care is taken. I guess there will be since the world has rediscovered grindhouses and fleapit cinema masterpieces courtesy of Quentin and Mr. Rodriguez. Sure there’s the problem of many pretenders to the throne, as some people try to imitate the artform. A handful succeed, but loads more fail. It’s all good so long as no one forgets the hard working men and women who battled against the odds in the sixties, seventies and early eighties. Long may Synapse resurrect the long forgotten gems.
Last thing, the song playing over the trailer to Mr. Billion is sheer perfection, wait until you hear it.
Produced by: Ban 1 Productions | Cast: Caroline Munro, Ernest Borgnine, Ian McCulloch, George Eastman, Tisa Farrow, Jim Brown, Senta Berger, Dan O’Bannon, Brett Halsey, Nancy Sinatra, Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Ashley, Robert Carradine, Kayo Matsuo, Maribel Martin, Jason Williams, Rockne Tarkington | Year: 2005/2012 | Country: USA | Language: English | Color: Color/B&W | Runtime: 3h 45min
Distributor: Synapse Films
BLU-RAY SPECS:
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 16:9 1080p HD MPEG-4 AVC
Region: Region Free
Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL:
– Audio Commentary: Edwin Samuelson, Michael Gingold and Chris Poggiali.
